Colin Owensby, a multi-disciplinary recreational athlete, two-time Ironman and 100-mile ultramarathoner, model, community coach and stunt double from northern California, is set to compete in an upcoming Ironman race in France on June 28 in honor of Veterans suicide awareness and men’s mental health. Owensby also hopes to spend more time in Colorado, specifically in the Roaring Fork Valley, for the sake of skiing and bringing the tools of his practical framework, which he calls the Map of Resilience, to other athletes and members of the community looking to improve their day-to-day lives.
“I think it is important to treat everybody with grace. People have their hard days, and many of us have already experienced the hardest things in our lives. For me, delving into these pillars and finding and growing our horizons helps to bring a lot more gravity and grounding on this journey,” Owensby shared.
These pillars of success, which he shares on his website and social media, include: service to others, getting outside in nature, physical exercise, participating in and with community.
“An important step is to find something in your life that you can look at and say, ‘Hey, I’m grateful for that,’ and carry that into tomorrow. I think that is the simplest thing a person can start with. It takes no money and no other people; it truly is within your own ears,” Owensby stated.
When he began mapping out what he hoped his life would look like, he knew he wanted to push the envelope after falling in love with triathlon training when he entered an IronKids event at age 8. Much of his drive came from heartache in his life. Having been in the world of recreational sports since the age of 5, Owensby shared that same passion with his older brother.
“My older brother was the one who was leading the way for me. When he wanted to play football, I wanted to play football.
When he wanted to play basketball, I wanted to play basketball. We were a tight unit as a family. We grew up liking to be active, going camping and hiking, anything outdoors or in sports, we were doing it,” said Owensby.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck when Owensby was 15 and his brother was beginning to scout schools. During a road trip home from one of these tours, his brother fell asleep at the wheel while on the freeway. His mother was in the passenger seat while Colin was asleep in the backseat when the vehicle went off the freeway and off a hill, leaving him folded in the seat pinned by luggage.
After being placed in a medically-induced coma to help monitor his status at the hospital while surgeries were conducted, he awoke roughly five days later.
“The doctors told my family and me there was a chance that I would not be able to walk again. They didn’t know initially that I had a much more severe spinal fracture that wouldn’t show itself in X-rays until about a week and a half later. They tried to have me start walking as soon as I was able to, and the movement actually ended up causing my vertebrae to crack open further. It was excruciating,” Owensby explained.
He continued, “As a 15-year-old kid who loved sports, I wouldn’t accept that. I wanted to get back out and be my normal self again. I not only had to heal my organs that were damaged in the crash, but I also had to regrow muscle and then retrain that muscle on how to walk again.”
The process was slow, but he accomplished it. He eventually began joining his brother at training and recreational games, one of the most near and dear being basketball, where another unexpected series of events unfolded in the blink of an eye. Just four months after his injury and recovery time, Owensby’s brother collapsed during a game of basketball and later passed away from an undetected cardiac issue.
“I kind of had closure almost instantly because I watched him die. This felt almost like a silver lining, if you could call it that, and helped me to show up for my family who didn’t get that closure,” Owensby said.
Despite these hardships, he has continued to show up for all of these goals and hopes to inspire more people to do the same.
To keep up with Colin visit www.thecolinowensby.com or follow him on Instagram @thecolinowensby